Every year, JD Powers rates the reliability of new automobiles based on 3-year poll results of original car owners. Reliability is ranked on around 200 or so mechanical criteria, then grouped in 5 different categories:
- Overall Reliability
- Powertrain
- Body and Interior
- Features and Accessories
We should remember that Used Car Ratings might look completely different than New Car Ratings. The New Cars judged in these reliability ratings are three years old, meaning that none of them go beyond the age of a 2006 model. There is a tremendous amount of data to gather in order to derive a useful used car reliability ratings chart. It would be interesting to see the 20-year ratings on cars and which of them rank the best for longevity and lowest-maintenance life span.
While I certainly appreciate the tremendous effort and research JD Powers does in getting these useful new car ratings together, I wish they would go into a bit more detail. I am sure they have enough data to break these rankings down into even more meaningful specifics as it pertains to new car reliability. As for the auto rating system, wouldn't it be much more interesting to see 100-point spans over the vague 5-Star ratings they use? I am sure they have the data on these new cars - it's just a matter of sharing it in their charts. Since I like numbers and 100-point ratings systems, PRR has decided to extrapolate the numbers and come up with a rough average, using the 100-point average scale. The result is the PRR Rating shown in the table below.
Car Reliability
New Car Ratings
| Make | Overall | Powertrain | Body & Int. | Features & Acc. | PRR Rating | |
| 1 | Buick | 100 | 100 | 80 | 100 | 93.33 |
| Toyota | 100 | 100 | 80 | 100 | 93.33 | |
| 2 | Jaguar | 100 | 100 | 100 | 60 | 86.67 |
| Lexus | 100 | 100 | 100 | 60 | 86.67 | |
| Mercury | 100 | 80 | 80 | 100 | 86.67 | |
| 3 | Infiniti | 80 | 100 | 80 | 60 | 80.00 |
| Cadillac | 80 | 60 | 80 | 100 | 80.00 | |
| Honda | 80 | 80 | 60 | 100 | 80.00 | |
| 4 | Acura | 80 | 100 | 60 | 60 | 73.33 |
| Lincoln | 80 | 80 | 80 | 60 | 73.33 | |
| Porche | 80 | 80 | 80 | 60 | 73.33 | |
| 5 | Audi | 60 | 60 | 80 | 60 | 66.67 |
| Ford | 60 | 60 | 60 | 80 | 66.67 | |
| Hyundai | 60 | 80 | 60 | 60 | 66.67 | |
| Subaru | 60 | 80 | 60 | 60 | 66.67 | |
| Chrysler | 60 | 60 | 80 | 60 | 66.67 | |
| BMW | 60 | 80 | 60 | 60 | 66.67 | |
| 6 | GMC | 60 | 60 | 60 | 60 | 60.00 |
| Mercedes Benz | 60 | 60 | 80 | 40 | 60.00 | |
| Chevrolet | 60 | 60 | 60 | 60 | 60.00 | |
| 7 | Mitsubishi | 60 | 40 | 60 | 60 | 53.33 |
| Volvo | 60 | 60 | 60 | 40 | 53.33 | |
| Nissan | 40 | 40 | 60 | 60 | 53.33 | |
| Dodge | 40 | 40 | 60 | 60 | 53.33 | |
| Mini | 40 | 40 | 60 | 60 | 53.33 | |
| Saab | 40 | 60 | 40 | 60 | 53.33 | |
| 8 | Saturn | 40 | 60 | 40 | 40 | 46.67 |
| Jeep | 40 | 40 | 60 | 40 | 46.67 | |
| Pontiac | 40 | 40 | 40 | 60 | 46.67 | |
| Scion | 40 | 60 | 40 | 40 | 46.67 | |
| Mazda | 40 | 40 | 60 | 40 | 46.67 | |
| Land Rover | 40 | 40 | 40 | 60 | 46.67 | |
| Volkswagen | 40 | 60 | 40 | 40 | 46.67 | |
| 9 | Kia | 40 | 40 | 40 | 40 | 40.00 |
| Hummer | 40 | 40 | 40 | 40 | 40.00 | |
| Isuzu | 40 | 40 | 40 | 40 | 40.00 | |
| Suzuki | 40 | 40 | 40 | 40 | 40.00 | |
| 10 | ||||||
| Excellent | ||||||
| Very Good | ||||||
| Good | ||||||
| Fair | ||||||
| Poor |
 Honda Civic 2009 Honda Civic HybridONE OWNER US $19,991.00 |
 Honda Civic Si Coupe One Owner SI with Factory Navigation US $14,000.00 |
 Honda Civic LX 2008 Honda Civic LX with Low MilageVery Clean insout  US $11,397.00
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 Honda Civic 2006 RED LINE 20L Black Onyx US $9,984.00 |
 Honda Civic 2009 Honda Civic SI US $18,000.00 |
 Honda Civic Coupe 98 Silver Honda Civic Coupe US $1,850.00
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 Honda Civic 04 CIVIC 2004 HONDA CIVIC EX 2 DOOR COUPE GREAT CAR LOADED US $9,100.00
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Posted under Autos, Personal Care
This post was written by Rob on March 19, 2009
Buick number one? What a world.
Don’t be surprised to see even more U.S Cars improve in the reliability department.
Stay tuned for the 2010 Car Reliability Ratings. They’ll be out soon.
Rob